1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of computer software and particularly to an improved method for displaying aircrew decision aids for use in determining the optimum placement of an Electronic Attack (EA) aircraft. The core of the invention is a software program that dynamically provides a set of projected flight path positions for display to the EA flight crew. The software program of the present invention generates information to populate various display formats representing, for example, a jamming score as well as a prioritized list of future aircraft positions. The display formats aid the EA aircrew in assessing the effectiveness of a given jamming approach and assists in projecting an optimum flight path for both Protected Entity (PE) and EA aircraft. The projected optimum PE and EA flight paths are determined in software executing the Dynamic Mission Re-planning Tool (DMRT) in a computer. The projected optimum flight paths minimize exposure of PE and EA to threat emitters thus enhancing the probability of successful accomplishment of their mission.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electronic Warfare (EW) tactics employed by EA aircraft strive to direct electromagnetic energy into a threat radar receiver with sufficient power to prevent the threat radar receiver from accurately detecting or tracking the PE. EW includes the basic concepts of Noise Jamming and Deception Jamming. Key to the successful jamming effort is generating a signal that exceeds the expected target return signal seen by the threat receiver and concentrating the radar jamming signal in the direction of the threat receiver antenna. Barrage noise jamming floods the threat radar receiver with massive amounts of electronic emissions and significantly degrades low technology threat receiver performance. With the evolution of advanced radar concepts the noise jamming approach is less effective against high technology threat emitters. Advanced technology threat radar emitters have led to tuning the EA jamming frequency to match the frequency of the threat emitter and to follow any frequency hopping or other frequency agile characteristics the threat emitter may employ. Deception jamming requires the EA platform to generate a signal that is similar to the target return signal the threat receiving system expects while modifying target characteristics such as return signal strength, range, heading, velocity or acceleration. Overcoming multiple threat emitters employing advanced radar techniques, while transitioning a hostile area and providing protection jamming is a high workload environment for an aircrew. Cockpit display information and aircrew decision aids are required to improve situational awareness for the EA aircrew. It is an objective of this invention to reduce aircrew workload by providing decision aids.
Systems to aid the EA flight crew decision making process in positioning the jamming source carried by the EA are in need of improvement. Current aids available to EA flight crew provide text and rudimentary visual cues depicting gross EA position relative to threat receiver position. Current EA systems force the flight crew to manually incorporate current PE position relative to the position of the EA and threat receiver, then forces the aircrew to manually determine the optimum EW countermeasure to employ and to also manually determine the best projected EA aircraft position, all of which drives up aircrew workload. Current systems are incapable of fusing EA jamming capability with projected threat emitter performance information in order to obtain optimal geometrical positioning of the EA relative to threat emitters. The novel method of the present invention for combining threat emitter system characteristics with EA aircraft capabilities while simultaneously incorporating PE position on a series of flexibly configurable display formats greatly reduces EA aircrew workload and makes the EA more effective.